Notifying method, information processing apparatus, and control program

ABSTRACT

As an example of an embodiment, there is disclosed a notifying method of notifying the user of information regarding an apparatus in an information processing apparatus which can simultaneously provide an environment, as a user session, which can activate a user&#39;s desired program to each of a plurality of users. This method has: an obtaining step of obtaining the information regarding the apparatus; a specifying step of specifying the user session which uses a display unit of the information processing apparatus; and an activating step of activating a display program for displaying the information obtained in the obtaining step by the user session specified in the specifying step.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to a notifying method and an informationprocessing apparatus for notifying the proper user of informationregarding an apparatus, for example, information regarding a print jobin a printing apparatus and information regarding a status.

BACKGROUND ART

Hitherto, as a method of notifying the user of information regarding aprint job and a status of a printer, there is a method whereby a jobmanagement application program or a printer driver program (alsoabbreviated to a printer driver) having a function equivalent to such ajob management application program notifies the user of such informationas mentioned above.

However, in the case of the job management application program or theprinter driver, the user himself selects an icon of a printercorresponding to a physical printer which needs the information andillustratively designates the physical printer, thereby browsing suchinformation as mentioned above. Thus, unless the user designates theprinter, he cannot be notified of the information.

Therefore, there is a method whereby the job management applicationprogram or the printer driver is automatically activated in accordancewith predetermined conditions so that it is possible to automaticallynotify the user of the information.

However, a computer in a multiuser environment has the followingproblems in the case of automatically activating the job managementapplication program or the printer driver.

In the computer in the multiuser environment, a plurality of users cansimultaneously log-on (log-in) and an application program (alsoabbreviated to an application) can be activated by each of a pluralityof user sessions. The user session denotes that a certain user logs-into the computer, and the user can activate various applications by theuser session corresponding to himself.

The number of user sessions which can display various information onto adisplay is equal to one and such a user session is called an activesession. Only the application which is activating in the active sessioncan display the information onto the display. The applications activatedby the user sessions other than the active session cannot display theinformation onto the display.

There is a problem such that even in the case where the job managementapplication is automatically activated in order to notify a certain userof the information, if the activated user session is the non-activesession, the information is not displayed onto the display and no usercan be notified of the information.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The invention is made to solve at least one of the foregoing problemsand it is an aspect of the invention to provide a mechanism which cannotify the proper user of information even in a multiuser environment.

To accomplish the above aspect, according to the invention, there isprovided a notifying method of notifying a user of information regardingan apparatus in an information processing apparatus which cansimultaneously provide an environment, as a user session, which canactivate a user's desired program to each of a plurality of users,comprising: an obtaining step of obtaining the information regarding theapparatus; a specifying step of specifying the user session which uses adisplay unit of the information processing apparatus; and an activatingstep of activating a display program for displaying the informationobtained in the obtaining step by the user session specified in thespecifying step.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate thesame or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a computer in a multiuser environment;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing software layers in the multiuser environmentof the computer;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a flow of data between the computerand a printer;

FIG. 4 is comprised of FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrating flowcharts showingprocesses which are executed by a data transmission/reception controlprogram and a job management application;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing software layers of the computer in themultiuser environment;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a print queue corresponding toprinters;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processes of the job managementapplication;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a flow of the data among the computersand the printer;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing processes which are executed by the datatransmission/reception control program;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing print data to which a computer name hasbeen added;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the computer;

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a user information file;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing processes which are executed by the datatransmission/reception control program; and

FIG. 14 is comprised of FIGS. 14A and 14B illustrating flowchartsshowing processes which are executed by the job management application.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

An embodiment according to the invention will be described hereinbelowwith reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a computer in a multiuser environment.

A computer 100 is an information processing apparatus such as PC,workstation, personal digital assistant, or the like and has thefollowing units. A keyboard 110 and a mouse 118 are devices which areused for the user to input various information. An input interface 111is an interface for connecting the information input devices such askeyboard 110, mouse 118, and the like to a bus 120.

A display 117 is a display apparatus for displaying information to theuser. A CRT, a liquid crystal display apparatus, or the like can bementioned as a display 117. An output interface 116 is an interface forconnecting the display 117 to the bus 120.

A printer 300 is a printing apparatus for printing onto a recordingmedium on the basis of print data which is transmitted from the computer100. As a typical printer, a laser beam printer, an ink jet printer, orthe like can be mentioned. However, it is not necessary that the printer300 is limited to the printing apparatus but an image processingapparatus such as copying apparatus, hybrid apparatus, facsimileapparatus, or the like or another external apparatus can be used. Aninput/output interface 119 is an interface for establishing theconnection to the printer 300 and the like. A network interface, aCentronics interface, a parallel interface, a USB, an SCSI, an IEEE1394,a wireless interface, or the like can be mentioned as an I/O interface119.

An initializing program of the computer has been stored in a ROM 113. Aprogram of an operating system, which will be explained hereinlater, andother application programs have been stored in an external storagedevice 115. A RAM 114 has a figure information storing area 114 a, aprint data storing area 114 b, a program loading area 114 c. A CPU 112executes various information processes in accordance with variousprograms stored in the ROM 113, external storage device 115, and RAM 114and controls the above-mentioned units, respectively.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing software layers in the multiuser environmentof the computer. An operating system (hereinafter, also abbreviated to“OS”) 200 having a function for providing the multiuser environment is aplatform which can control a plurality of user sessions. User's desiredapplications have been activated in each of user sessions 210, 220, and230.

In FIG. 2, an application 211, an application 212, and a job managementapplication 213 have been activated in the user session 210. Anapplication 221 and an application 222 have been activated in the usersession 220. An application 231 has been activated in the user session230.

The OS service group is a service program group which is provided by theOS. Only one of the service programs has been activated for the OSirrespective of the number of user sessions and has been activated evenif there is no active session. Although a print service 201 and anetwork service 202 have been shown as examples in FIG. 2, otherservices also exist ordinarily.

As already mentioned, even when three user sessions exist, the number ofactive sessions which occupy the function for displaying informationonto the display is equal to 1. For example, if the user session 220 isthe active session, it is seen only as applications 221 and 222 from thedesk-top PC and the applications 211 to 213 and 231 cannot be seen.

When the printing is executed by the application 211 or 212, the jobmanagement application 213 operates in an interlocking relational mannerwith a printer driver 203 as one of the print services. If the usersession 210 is the active session, the job management application 213can display information regarding a print job and a status of theprinter onto the display. However, if another user session is the activesession, those information cannot be displayed and no user can confirmthose information.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a flow of data between the computer100 and the printer 300. In the computer 100, a print applicationprogram 311 is a program for providing a drawing environment and a printenvironment to the user and instructing the print start.

The print service 201 is a program group which is used for the OS toprovide the print service and includes the printer driver and the like.Figure information outputted from the print application program 311 isconverted into a printer command in the print service 201, so that printdata is formed. The print data is transferred to a datatransmission/reception control program 313 on a unit basis of a printdata block of a predetermined size.

The data transmission/reception control program 313 transmits thereceived print data block to the printer 300 via an interface controlprogram 314. Together with the transmission, the datatransmission/reception control program 313 requests the next print datablock of another program in the print service 201. The interface controlprogram 314 is a program for managing the input/output interface 119.The data transmission/reception control program 313 continues the aboveprocess until all print data blocks are transferred to the printer 300.On the other hand, the data transmission/reception control program 313obtains the information regarding the status of the printer 300 via theinterface control program 314.

A job management application 312 is an application for managing theinformation regarding the print job and the status of the printer. Thejob management application 312 communicates with the datatransmission/reception control program 313 by using a communicatingmethod such as a mail slot or the like and obtains the informationregarding the print job and the status of the printer. The jobmanagement application 312 notifies the user of the received informationand transfers an instruction from the user to the datatransmission/reception control program 313.

The program group of the print service 201 is not individually activatedevery user session but is activated even if the active session does notexist.

Although a share of the processes of the host computer has been shown asmentioned above as an example in the embodiment, the invention is notlimited to it.

The printer 300 has an interface unit 301, a RAM 302, a ROM 303, a CPU304, and a printer engine 305. The interface unit 301 is an interfacefor establishing the connection to the outside. A control program hasbeen stored in the ROM 303. The CPU 304 controls each unit in theprinter 300 in accordance with the control program stored in the ROM303. The RAM 302 is used as a main memory and a work memory of the CPU304 and is also used as a reception buffer for temporarily storing theprint data transmitted from the computer 100. The printer engine 305prints onto a recording medium on the basis of the data stored in theRAM 302.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are flowcharts showing processes which are executed bythe data transmission/reception control program 313 and the jobmanagement application 312. In FIGS. 4A and 4B, the processes which areexecuted by the data transmission/reception control program 313 areshown on the left side and the processes which are executed by the jobmanagement application 312 are shown on the right side. Big arrowsindicate that data is transferred.

When the data transmission/reception control program 313 receives theprint data block (step S401), it obtains the active session information(step S402) and specifies the user session which is at present theactive session. As a method of specifying the active session, forexample, the program 313 inquires of a multiuser management serviceincluded in the service group of the OS.

If the active session does not exist (step S403), that is, if no useroccupies the desk-top PC, since there is no need to display the statusinformation, step S405 follows. If the active session exists, the jobmanagement application is activated by the active session (step S404).

Subsequently, the status information (also including the informationregarding the print job) of the printer 300 is obtained via theinterface control program 314 (step S405).

The data transmission/reception control program 313 receives a message(451) from the job management application in parallel with the series ofoperations mentioned above and confirms whether the job managementapplication has already been activated or not. Therefore, whether thejob management application has already been activated or not isdiscriminated (step S406). If it is not activated, step S408 follows. Ifthe job management application has already been activated, the obtainedstatus information is transmitted (452) to the job managementapplication as a message (step S407).

Subsequently, a process for transmitting the print data block to theprinter 300 is executed (step S408). After that, whether all print datahas been received or not, that is, whether the printing has beenfinished or not is discriminated (step S409). If the printing is notfinished, step S401 follows. If the printing has been finished, amessage (453) showing an end command is transmitted to the jobmanagement application (step S410).

First, the job management application activated in step S404 confirmswhether another job management application has already been activated inthe same user session or not (step S411). If another job managementapplication has been activated, an end notification is made to the jobmanagement application (step S412).

Although the end notification (notification of an end message) has beenmade here in order to make exclusive control of the job managementapplication, there is also a method of making the exclusive control byusing a semaphore or the like. Although the job management applicationwhich has been activated first is finished here, if another jobmanagement application has been activated, it is also possible to finishthe job management application which was activated later or not toactivate the job management application later. It is also possible tocontrol so that the data transmission/reception control program 313finishes one of the job management applications.

Subsequently, whether the end notification has been received fromanother job management application or not is confirmed (step S413). Ifit has been received, the processing routine is finished.

If the end notification is not received from another job managementapplication, in order to notify the data transmission/reception controlprogram 313 that the self job management application has been activated,the message (451) showing the existence is transmitted to the datatransmission/reception control program 313 (step S414).

After that, whether the message has been transmitted from the datatransmission/reception Control program 313 or not is discriminated (stepS415). If the message is not transmitted, the processing routine isreturned to step S413. If the message showing the end command has beentransmitted (step S416), the processing routine is finished. If themessage showing the status information has been transmitted instead ofthe message indicative of the end command, the information regarding thestatus of the printer and the information regarding the print job aredisplayed on the display (step S417).

Thus, since the information regarding the status of the printer and theinformation regarding the print job are displayed on the display by thejob management application activated in the active session, one of theusers can be certainly notified of the necessary information.

If there is no active session, since the job management application isnot carelessly activated, resources of the system, for example,processing resources of the CPU or memory resources are not wastefullyconsumed.

When the printing is finished, since the end notification is made to thejob management application, the job management application can beautomatically finished.

since a plurality of job management applications are not carelesslyactivated, the system resources are not wastefully consumed.

Subsequently, a method of notifying the user who instructs the printingof the information regarding the print job and the printer status willbe described. Thus, when a plurality of users log-in to the computer,since the user who needs the information regarding the print job and theprinter status is the user who printed, it is prevented that the userwho does not print is unnecessarily notified of the information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing that a job management application 232 hasbeen further activated in the state of FIG. 2. In FIG. 5, the jobmanagement application has been activated in each of a plurality of usersessions. A plurality of job management applications can be activated byanother process on the basis of the same program code.

Further, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a print queuecorresponding to the printer 300. The print job issued to the printercorresponding to the print queue has been inputted in the print queue. Aprint job 1 and a print job 2 have been inputted as print jobs of theuser A and a print job 3 has been inputted as a print job of the user Cinto the print queue of FIG. 6.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processes of the job managementapplication for activating a print management application by the usersession corresponding to the user who instructed the printing. SinceFIG. 7 is obtained by adding step S701 to S703 to the flowchart of FIGS.4A and 4B, other steps are substantially the same as the correspondingsteps in FIGS. 4A and 4B.

In FIG. 7, after the activation, the job management application inquiresof the OS about the user name corresponding to the user sessionactivated by itself (step S701). After that, the information regardingthe print queue as shown in FIG. 6 is obtained from the print service(step S702).

The user name obtained in step S701 is compared with the informationregarding the print queue obtained in step S702, thereby discriminatingwhether the print job of the user who activated its own application hasbeen inputted into the print queue or not (step S703). If it is notinputted, the processing routine is finished. If it has been inputted,step S413 follows.

Thus, it is possible that the user who printed is notified of theinformation regarding the print job and the information regarding thestatus and the user who does not print is not unnecessarily notified ofthe information.

Subsequently, a method whereby although the status information is notnotified while the printing is normally executed, the status information(in many cases, error information) is notified when an error occurs willbe described.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a system of a server client type andshowing a system in the case where the user instructs the printing on aclient computer. Particularly, when the user instructs the printing fromthe client computer, there is no need to display the informationregarding the print job and the status onto the display of the servercomputer. However, it is necessary to notify one of the users of theerror information by displaying it onto the display of the servercomputer.

Therefore, the method whereby although the status information is notnotified while the printing is normally executed, the status information(in many cases, the error information) is notified when the error occurswill be described with respect to the system of FIG. 8 as aprerequisite. Similar processes can be executed also in the system ofFIG. 1.

In FIG. 8, a client computer 810, a server computer 820, and the printer300 are connected so that they can communicate with each other. Theclient computer 810 and the server computer 820 are equivalent to thecomputers shown in FIG. 1. A print application program 811 is equivalentto the print application program 311. Print services 812 and 822 areequivalent to the print service 201. Data transmission/reception controlprograms 813 and 823 are equivalent to the data transmission/receptioncontrol program 313. Job management applications 814 and 824 areequivalent to the job management application 312. An interface controlprogram 821 is equivalent to the interface control program 314. Networkcontrol programs 815 and 825 are programs for establishing connection tothe network.

When the user instructs the printing by the print application program811, print data formed by the print service 812 is transmitted to theprint service 822 via the network control programs 815 and 825. The datatransmission/reception control program 823 transmits a print data blockformed by the print service 822 to the printer 300 via the interfacecontrol program 821.

The job management application 814 can communicate with the datatransmission/reception control program 823 via the network controlprograms 815 and 825.

The server computer 820 further has a database 826. The database 826 isa database for storing user information. Administrator authorization andthe like of the printer have been disclosed in the user information.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing processes which are executed by the datatransmission/reception control program 823. When the datatransmission/reception control program 823 receives the print data block(step S901), whether the printing is a network printing or a localprinting is discriminated (step S902).

The network printing is a printing such that the print data has beentransferred via the network. The local printing is a printing such thatthe print data has been formed in the computer.

There is a method whereby the computer name is added to the print datain order to discriminate whether the printing is the network printing orthe local printing. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the print data to whichthe computer name has been added. The data transmission/receptioncontrol program 823 analyzes the print data and obtains the computername. Further, the computer name is obtained also from the OS. Both ofthe computer names are compared. If they do not coincide, it isdetermined that the printing is the network printing. If they coincide,it is determined that the printing is the local printing.

In the case of the local printing, step S401 in FIGS. 4A and 4B follows.In the case of the network printing, step S903 follows.

Subsequently, the status information (also including the informationregarding the print job) of the printer 300 is obtained via theinterface control program 821 (step S903). Whether the obtained statusinformation is information to be displayed on the server computer or notis discriminated (step S904).

If it is the information to be displayed, step S904 follows. The activesession information is obtained and whether the user session which is atpresent the active session exists or not is discriminated (step S905).If the active session exists, a print job management application programis activated in the active session.

Thus, it is enabled to notify one of the users using the server computerof the printer status, particularly, the error of the printer. If theserver computer is managed by the network administrator, the networkadministrator can be notified of the error. If the server computerexists beside the printer 300, the user near the printer 300 can benotified of the error.

The data transmission/reception control program 823 discriminateswhether the job management application has been activated or not (stepS907). If the job management application has been activated, theobtained status information is transmitted to the job managementapplication as a message (step S908). In FIG. 8, the message istransmitted to the job management applications 814 and 824. In the caseof transmitting the message, it is also necessary to transmit thecomputer name in order to specify to which computer the job managementapplication belongs.

Subsequently, a process for transmitting the print data block to theprinter 300 is executed (step S909). After that, whether all print datahas been received or not, that is, whether the printing has beenfinished or not is discriminated (step S910). Whether the job managementapplication has been activated or not is discriminated (step S911). Ifit has been activated, the message indicative of the end command istransmitted to the job management application (step S912).

Subsequently, if a plurality of users exist, the users who need theinformation regarding the print job and the printer status and the userswho do not need the information exist. Therefore, a method of switching“notify”/“not notify” of the information every user will now bedescribed.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the computer which can switch the“notify”/“not notify” of the information every user. FIG. 11 is obtainedby adding a user information file 1104 to FIG. 3. A job managementapplication 1102 executes processes shown in a flowchart of FIGS. 14Aand 14B in place of the processes shown in the flowchart of FIGS. 4A and4B. A data transmission/reception control program 1103 executes theprocesses shown in the flowchart of FIGS. 4A and 4B and also executesprocesses shown in a flowchart of FIG. 13 at the time of the residence.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of the user information file. Inthe user information file, the item “upon printing “my” job” showswhether the information is notified when the print job of the userexists in the print queue or not. The item “upon printing another user'sjob” shows whether the information is notified when the print job ofanother user exists in the print queue or not. The item “uponnon-printing” shows whether the information is notified when the printjobs of no users exist or not. The item “when error occurs” showswhether the information is notified when an error occurs or not.

In FIG. 12, the apparatus has been set so that the users belonging to anAdministrators group are notified of the information irrespective of thepresence or absence of the print job. The apparatus has also been set sothat the users belonging to Guests are notified of the information solong as their own print jobs exist. Further, the user AdminA belongingto the Administrators group is notified of the information only in thecase where their own print jobs exist or in the case where the erroroccurs.

The data transmission/reception control program 1103 and the jobmanagement application 1102 refer to the user information file. The userinformation file may be the data transmission/reception control program1103, the job management application 1102, or the data included in theOS.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing processes which are executed by the datatransmission/reception control program 1103 at the time of residence.

First, the data transmission/reception control program 1103 obtains thestatus information (also including the information regarding the printjob) of the printer 300 via the interface control program 314 (stepS1301).

Subsequently, the active session information is obtained and whether theuser session which is at present the active session exists or not isdiscriminated (step S1302). If the active session does not exist, sincethere is no need to display the status information, step S1304 follows.If the active session exists, the job management application isactivated in the active session (step S1303).

The data transmission/reception control program 1103 receives themessage from the job management application in parallel with the seriesof operations mentioned above and confirms whether the job managementapplication has already been activated or not. Therefore, whether thejob management application has already been activated or not isdiscriminated (step S1304). If it is not activated, step S1301 follows.If the job management application has already been activated, theobtained status information is transmitted to all of the activated jobmanagement applications as a message (step S1305).

FIGS. 14A and 14B are flowcharts showing processes which are executed bythe job management application 1102.

First, whether another job management application has already beenactivated in the same user session or not is confirmed (step S1401). Ifanother job management application has been activated, the endnotification is made to this job management application (step S1402).

Subsequently, the user name corresponding to the user session in whichits own application has been activated is obtained (step S1403). Whetherthe user has instructed the end or not is discriminated (step S1404). Ifhe has instructed the end, “not notify” is recorded into the item of“upon non-printing” of the column corresponding to the obtained username in the user information file (step S1405).

Subsequently, whether the end notification has been received fromanother job management application or not is discriminated (step S1406).If it is not received, notifying conditions of the column correspondingto the obtained user name are obtained from the user information file(step S1407). Further, the information regarding the print queue isobtained (step S1408).

Whether the apparatus is in a state where the status information shouldbe notified or not is discriminated on the basis of the informationobtained in steps S1407 and S1408 (step S1409). If it is not in thestate where the status information should be notified, the processingroutine is finished.

If the apparatus is in the state where the status information should benotified, the message indicative of the existence is transmitted to thedata transmission/reception control program 1103 in order to notify thedata transmission/reception control program 1103 that its ownapplication has been activated (step S1410).

After that, whether the message has been transmitted from the datatransmission/reception control program 1103 or not is discriminated(step S1411). If there is no message, the processing routine is returnedto step S1404.

If the message has been transmitted, whether the status should bedisplayed or not is discriminated on the basis of the information of theprint queue, the status information shown by the message, and thenotifying conditions of the user information file (step S1412). If it isnecessary to display, the information regarding the printer status andthe information regarding the print job are displayed onto the display(step S1413).

Thus, the “notify”/“not notify” of the information can be switched everyuser. The “notify”/“not notify” of the information can be switched inaccordance with the set conditions. Those conditions can be changed inaccordance with a desire of the user.

As described above, according to the embodiment, in the informationprocessing apparatus which can simultaneously provide the environment,as a user session, in which the user can activate the desired program toeach of a plurality of users, the user session which uses the displayunit of the information processing apparatus is specified and one of theusers can be certainly notified of the necessary information regardingthe apparatus in this user session by activating the display program.

If a plurality of display programs have been activated in the specificuser session, by finishing one of the plurality of display programs, itis prevented that the program is carelessly activated, and it ispossible to prevent that the resources of the system, for example, theprocessing resources of the CPU and the memory resources are wastefullyconsumed.

Since the display program is a program for displaying the informationregarding the print job issued to the printer or the informationregarding the status of the printer, it is possible for even apparatuseswhich have no means for confirming the information regarding theapparatus in detail and cannot confirm the details without the programin the information processing apparatus to certainly notify one of theusers of the information.

By specifying the user corresponding to the user session in which thedisplay program has been activated and discriminating whether the printjob of the relevant user has been issued to the printer or not, it isprevented that the user who does not print is unnecessarily notified ofthe information, and it is possible to notify the user who printed ofthe information regarding the print job and the information regardingthe status and not to unnecessarily notify the user who does not printof the information.

By discriminating whether the apparatus is in the state where it isnecessary to display the information regarding the apparatus or not onthe basis of the set condition information and the obtained informationor by discriminating whether it is necessary to display the informationregarding the apparatus or not on the basis of the set conditioninformation and the obtained information, the “notify”/“not notify” ofthe information can be switched every user. The “notify”/“not notify” ofthe information can be switched in accordance with the set conditions.Those conditions can be changed in accordance with a desire of the user.

In the case where the print job formed by the first informationprocessing apparatus is transferred to the printer via the secondinformation processing apparatus by using the information processingapparatus which can simultaneously provide the environment, as a usersession, in which the user can activate the desired program to each of aplurality of users, whether the information regarding the printer is theinformation which needs to be displayed onto the display unit of thesecond information processing apparatus or not is discriminated, and ifit is determined that the information needs to be displayed, byactivating the display program in the user session using the displayunit of the second information processing apparatus, one of the usersusing the second information processing apparatus can be notified of theinformation regarding the printer, particularly, the error of theprinter. If the second information processing apparatus is managed bythe network administrator, the network administrator can be notified ofthe error. If the second information processing apparatus exists nearthe printer, the user near the printer can be notified of the error.

1. A notifying method of notifying a user of information regarding anapparatus in an information processing apparatus which cansimultaneously provide an environment, as a user session, which canactivate a user's desired program to each of a plurality of users,comprising: an obtaining step of obtaining the information regarding theapparatus; a specifying step of specifying the user session which uses adisplay unit of the information processing apparatus; and an activatingstep of activating a display program for displaying the informationobtained in said obtaining step by the user session specified in saidspecifying step.
 2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising: areceiving step of receiving existence information showing that thedisplay program has been activated from the display program; anactivation discriminating step of discriminating whether the displayprogram has been activated or not on the basis of said existenceinformation; and a transmitting step of transmitting the informationobtained in said obtaining step to the display program in accordancewith a discrimination result showing that the display program has beenactivated.
 3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising a stepof, if a plurality of display programs have been activated by the usersession specified in said specifying step, finishing one of saidplurality of display programs.
 4. A method according to claim 1, whereinsaid display program is a program for displaying information regarding aprint job issued to a printing apparatus or information regarding astatus of said printing apparatus.
 5. A method according to claim 4,further comprising: a user specifying step of specifying the usercorresponding to the user session in which the display program has beenactivated; and an issuance discriminating step of discriminating whetherthe print job of the user specified in said user specifying step hasbeen issued to said printing apparatus or not, and wherein if it isdetermined that said print job is not issued, said display program isnot activated.
 6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising: anecessity discriminating step of discriminating whether the informationis information which needs to be displayed or not on the basis of saidinformation obtained in said obtaining step, and wherein the displayprogram is activated by the user session specified in said specifyingstep in accordance with a discrimination result showing that theinformation is the information which needs to be displayed.
 7. A methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising: a condition obtaining step ofobtaining condition information in which conditions in which theinformation regarding the apparatus is displayed and conditions in whichsaid information is not displayed have been described; a statusdiscriminating step of discriminating whether the apparatus is in astatus where it is necessary to display the information regarding theapparatus or not on the basis of said condition information and theinformation obtained in said obtaining step; and a step of finishing thedisplay program in accordance with a discrimination result showing thatthe apparatus is not in said status.
 8. A method according to claim 1,further comprising: a condition obtaining step of obtaining conditioninformation in which conditions in which the information regarding theapparatus is displayed and conditions in which said information is notdisplayed have been described; and a necessity discriminating step ofdiscriminating whether it is necessary to display the informationregarding the apparatus or not on the basis of said conditioninformation and the information obtained in said obtaining step, andwherein if it is determined that it is unnecessary to display theinformation regarding the apparatus, the display program does notdisplay the information obtained in said obtaining step.
 9. A notifyingmethod of notifying the user of information regarding a printingapparatus in an information processing apparatus which cansimultaneously provide an environment, as a user session, which canactivate a user's desired program to each of a plurality of users,comprising: a step of transferring a print job formed by a firstinformation processing apparatus to the printing apparatus via a secondinformation processing apparatus; an obtaining step of obtaining theinformation regarding the printing apparatus; a discriminating step ofdiscriminating whether the information obtained in said obtaining stepis information which needs to be displayed onto a display unit of saidsecond information processing apparatus or not; a specifying step of, ifit is determined that the information is the information which needs tobe displayed, specifying the user session which uses the display unit ofsaid second information processing apparatus; and an activating step of,if it is determined that the information is the information which needsto be displayed, activating a display program for displaying theinformation obtained in said obtaining step by the user sessionspecified in said specifying step.
 10. A method according to claim 9,further comprising a transmitting step of transmitting the informationobtained in said obtaining step to at least one of the display programsactivated by said first information processing apparatus and said secondinformation processing apparatus.
 11. An information processingapparatus which can simultaneously provide an environment, as a usersession, which can activate a user's desired program to each of aplurality of users, comprising: obtaining means for obtaininginformation regarding an apparatus; specifying means for specifying theuser session which uses a display unit of said information processingapparatus; and activating means for activating a display program fordisplaying the information obtained by said obtaining means in the usersession specified by said specifying means.
 12. A computer-readablememory medium which stores a program for controlling a computer whichcan simultaneously provide an environment, as a user session, which canactivate a user's desired program to each of a plurality of users,wherein said control program allows the computer to execute: anobtaining step of obtaining information regarding an apparatus; aspecifying step of specifying the user session which uses a display unitof said computer; and an activating step of activating a display programfor displaying the information obtained in said obtaining step by theuser session specified in said specifying step.